The Triumph of Freedom.

Poems. Consisting of Elegies, Sonnets, Odes, Canzonets, and the Pleasures of Solitude.

An allegorical ode in a peculiar ten-line stanza (aabccdedeB) bearing the hallmarks of a grammar-school composition exercise. No longer obscure, the odes of William Collins in the 1790s were frequent objects of imitation by the original Della Cruscans and their many imitators, among the Peter Lionel Courtier.

Advertisement: "The favourable opinion expressed concerning some poetical efforts of the Author, which have appeared in periodical Miscellanies, accompanied with wishes for the publication of a Volume of his Poems, have induced him to lay the subsequent pages before the Public; and he waits, with respectful anxiety, the decision of their Tribunal. Of himself he deems it sufficient to observe, that he has not attained his twentieth year; nor is this mentioned with a view to veil Defect: on the contrary, he is fully convinced, that if merit is wanting, apologies must prove ineffectual to prevent Oblivion. London, November 5, 1595."

What glorious form attracts my sight!
Bursting the clouds of Reason's night,
While sick'ning Error sinks beneath the earth?
Weak Ignorance, with slavish eyes,
Amid the bright effulgence dies;
She looks of an immortal line,
Begirt with sacred majesty:
Strike the first string — 'tis Truth Divine!
The shades before her presence flee,
Her suff'ring sons revive, and nature hails her birth.